Ted;
My halifax has the dovetailed retainer plate with a single screw at the top to hold it in place. I had simply failed to catch that Gil had said to only raise the lever slightly to set the extractor to force out a stuck hull, but noted he said the manual stated to lift it to a vertical position. My triggers simply will not pull with the lever vertical, it has to come down to a near 60 degree angle before they will release.
I did get it back out 7 tried it (Unloaded) with the lever slightly lifted. In fact I cn raise it to at least 20 degrees, maybe 30 before the breech block starts to move. The triggers can be pulled throughout this range. As I am not using paper hulls have never had a problem with sticking hulls so had simply never looked into this, is good to know though, just in Case. When the weather, & me, gets a bit better I will load a couple of primed emptied in it & check it out, but I don't think it will fire until the breech is locked, I believe it was designed with this as a safety factor. seems first movement of the lever starts retracting the strikers so they cannot hit the primers. well thought out design INMO.


Miller/TN
I Didn't Say Everything I Said, Yogi Berra